4.0 Media in court

The information detailed in this section is general and applies to all courts. However, the Supreme Court, Coroners Court, Waitangi Tribunal, Family Court and Youth Court have additional or special provisions regarding media, which are detailed in section 5 of these guidelines.

In this section, ‘media’ refers to members of the media as defined in section 198(2) of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011. The section defines a member of the media as:

A person who is in the court for the purpose of reporting on the proceedings and who is either subject to or employed by an organisation that is subject to:

a code of ethics

the complaints procedure of the Broadcasting Standards Authority or the Press Council

Any other person reporting on the proceedings with the permission of the court.

If you are new to court reporting or to a particular court, it would be helpful to meet with the registrar or court manager to familiarise yourself with the court and its operation. It is necessary to do this at a time when the court is not in session.

Media need to be present in the courtroom at the time of the proceedings to obtain details of what happened in court. If media are not in court at the time of proceedings, they will need to request access to the court record to obtain details of what happened in court.

When court is sitting, the presiding judge is responsible for the conduct of proceedings inside the courtroom.